Brine Production Building Update

Roessler Construction & Contracting, Inc. is nearly complete with construction of the City’s new Brine Production Building. The new building is a 25-foot wide by 40-foot long by 18-foot high steel building located near to the Public Works salt dome. Once complete, the building will store a new salt brine generator. The brine generator is capable of producing 3,600 gallons of salt brine per hour. Two 4,400 gallon tanks on the exterior of the building will hold the brine until it is needed for snow and ice operations.

As an anti-icing agent, the salt brine can be sprayed on streets at temperatures above 20°F to prevent ice bonding to pavement. As a deicer, it can be used to pre-wet dry salt. This pre-wetting reduces the amount of salt that bounces or rolls off the street into gutter, ditches, etc. The moisture added by the pre-wetting process also speeds the action of the dry salt, resulting in faster deicing of snow-covered roads.

The use of salt brine can reduce overall salt use by providing an opportunity to apply materials before a storm event and thus reducing ice bonding to pavements. By treating on a proactive basis, overtime response to slick streets may be reduced. The use of salt brine may also reduce the use of dry salt by an estimated 5% annually, which is an estimated annual savings of $10,000.

To date, the project is under budget and on schedule for completion by the end of July.